“I love you, that is true,” Avery told him honestly, eyes tracking him with a bit of confusion as he got to his feet, “but that doesn’t mean you get to take cheap shots at my-”
His hands were warm and strong and the moment his thumb dug into her shoulder, Avery closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She wished her ability worked on herself more often than not, wished she could take away her own aches and pains or heal up her own bruises. Though that didn’t seem to be how it worked. She was just stuck being exhausted and sore when others walked away all better, sometimes without even saying thank you.
She covered his hand with hers briefly before just relaxing under his touch. “You know it doesn’t work like that,” she told him softly, her voice warm with the concern she could hear behind her. Hector worried about her so much but honestly he didn’t need to. Lucas took much better care of her than maybe he needed to and Hector was the only family she had. She worried about him, too and she knew she didn’t need to. It was why she never called him out on fretting over her. They were as bad as each other.
Snorting softly, Avery just laughed. “You’re right. It is. But y’know, sometimes I think it wouldn’t hurt not to follow the rules so rigidly every now and then. I never go out into the field without you, or Theo, so I’m always protected. I think it’s me I need to be protected from most of the time.”
She thought about classic old-school games. Minesweeper she’d never understood. “I don’t get how to play it,” she confessed. “I always just clicked buttons until I died. If we’re talking classics, you can’t beat solitaire.”
Her eyes drifted shut, she could feel herself relaxing underneath Hector's hands. "I should ask you to do this more often..."